


Balcony

by marvelfan



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: First Meetings, How Phil met Clint, I don't know how to tag this, Meet-Cute, No Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 17:04:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16163168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelfan/pseuds/marvelfan
Summary: How Phil Coulson meets Clint Barton.





	Balcony

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really proud of myself for writing a fic with absolutely no romantic relationships in it at all. This is purely them meeting for the first time. 
> 
> This thing is not proofread, so if it sucks, my bad. Enjoy!

Every morning when the sun began to rise, Phil Coulson was outside on his balcony, eighteen floors up from the rest of the world, watering his beloved plants. He has his routine down pat, and knows exactly which plants need watered, and which do not. Some would consider this a mundane task, but to Phil, it was pure Zen. He took pride in his work, and it made him happy to help a living organism thrive; usually the complete opposite of his employment at Shield.

Phil is a man of routine: wake up, go to the bathroom, wash hands, make coffee and breakfast, eat said breakfast, wash face, brush teeth, pack the work bag, and leave for work. At work, Phil starts off by attempting to tackle the mound of paperwork in the office, whether it is his or not. Unlike his coworkers, Phil enjoys paperwork. It is like watering his plants, it brings him bliss. After the paperwork, he debriefs with each agent assigned to him, works out, showers, eats lunch, continues paperwork, meets with Director Fury if needed, and anything else that the day holds. From work, Coulson drives home, unwinds, orders take-out, eats, showers, reads a book, and then sleep. Shower, rinse, repeat. This was his routine. That was, until this morning.

This morning, when Phil went outside on his balcony to water his plants, there was a surprise waiting for him. In front of him, laid a man, who couldn’t have been older than twenty, sleeping on his balcony. Phil, being the trained Shield agent that he was, took a few minutes to assess the situation.

He noticed the guy looked thin, as if he wasn’t eating enough; muscular in the arms; face was bruised and had blood dried around and under the nose; and clothes torn with one missing shoe. Phil noted the young man may have a broken bone or two, but the other man was sleeping in such an odd position, that Phil couldn’t be certain until he woke up.

_Seriously, how did this kid make it on to my balcony in this condition? Better question, how did he make it on to my balcony in general?_

Rather than nudging him or shaking him, Phil calmly told the kid to get up. No movement. Phil repeated himself, that time a little louder. Still nothing. The third try consisted of Phil raising his voice and clapping his hands together, which seemed to do the trick.

The young man jolted awake, looking around for any potential danger. It wasn’t until the guy saw Phil, and immediately went taut.

“No need to be alarmed, I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Phil, and you seemed to have ended up on my balcony… eighteen stories up from the ground and no access from the roof.”

He watched as the man on the ground contemplated what he wanted to say. Phil could only imagine what this kid went through to end up on the balcony looking like he did.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry about that. I had a wild night and ended up here.”

It didn’t slip past Phil that the guy never provided his name. _Interesting_. Being the nice, curious man, Phil was, he invited the younger man in to have breakfast.

“Really? You’re gonna let me eat your food? Let me guess, while you call the cops or somethin’.”

Warry of police being called. What is this kid involved in?

“No police, I promise. I don’t particularly feel like dealing with them either, and from the looks of it, you had a fairly rough night. Come in, eat some food, tell me about what happened, and you can even use the shower and get bandaged up if you need to.”

He noticed the younger man weighing his options, unsure if he could trust Phil or not.

“Um, okay. Thanks, I guess.”

Phil led the way inside, having the man sit at the table while Phil started making him a plate. Bacon and eggs sounded splendid for this morning. Normally Phil would eat a yogurt or oatmeal, but today was special.

“Tell me about what happened while I brew us up some coffee,” he said, handing the food to the man sitting at his table.

“Well, funny story… See, I was just minding my own business, going about my day as normal. I walked into… a certain establishment to complete a business transaction for my boss.”

Phil thanked his lucky stars that he had the ability to keep the most straight, even-keeled face imaginable under most circumstances. On the inside, he was laughing to himself about the kid was wording his story, doing his best not to sound horribly shady to the older man. Phil was starting to think this kid was nothing more than a common thug, but alas, he gave the kid the chance to explain himself.

“Well, turns out, the people waiting for me weren’t too happy with my boss’s decision and started chasing me. I didn’t think they’d be as fast as they were. A bunch of middle-aged looking dudes in tracksuits shouldn’t run as fast as they did. Aw, coffee,” he said, accidentally spilling some from his mouth after taking a sip.

The men in tracksuits caught Phil’s interest. Shield has been targeting the Tracksuit Mafia for the past several months. They had agents infiltrate and investigate, and even took down a handful of high-ranking members. Phil was beginning to wonder more and more who this kid in front of him really was.

“Anyway, so a few of them caught up to me and roughed me up some, but I managed to get away. With the help of a few well-placed shots, I blocked their path and escaped. Only problem was, my only option was to go up, which was how I ended up on the roof of this place. I slipped on the edge and fell down onto your balcony.”

Phil couldn’t believe that the man in front of him managed to survive falling four floors onto his balcony without seriously breaking everything. He was still curious what had the kid doing business with the mafia.

“And your doors were locked, and I really didn’t feel like making noise to break them, so, I slept. Now, here we are.”

Phil did have a burning question to ask.

“You mentioned some well-placed shots. Are you armed right now?”

“No, my bow is actually still out on your balcony.”

_Bow? Like bow and arrow?_

Phil had heard a rumor, months back about some mercenary with a bow and arrow, but he brushed that idea off as soon as he heard it. Now, Phil was thinking he made a mistake not believing the story. The kid didn’t look like a mercenary, but then again, not all of them do.

“Out there along with the plants that you crushed during your fall.”

Mercenary or not, Phil took pride in his plants, and didn’t like to see any of them crushed.

“Aw, plants. I’m sorry, dude. I wasn’t trying to hit them on my way down, I promise.”

“It’s quite alright,” he left off, hoping the younger man would fill in the blank with his name.

“Hawkeye. You can call me Hawkeye. I gotta get going. Do you mind if I take coffee with me?”

Phil shook his head no, already turning around to get a travel mug out for the man.

“Thank you, Phil. And thanks for not calling the cops. I really appreciate that.”

“You are more than welcomed,” he said as he poured the remaining coffee in to the mug and put the lid on it, handing it to the other man. “In fact, if you ever need a hiding place, or somewhere to stay, you are more than welcomed here. You know how to get to the balcony, or next time, you could just knock on the front door.”

Phil really didn’t want his plants to get crushed again.

“Wow, um, thanks. Creepy you let a complete stranger, who, for all you know, could be a serial killer, stay in your home. I might take you up on it sometime.”

“Any time you need to. Stay safe, Hawkeye.”

Phil waited as the younger man retrieved his bow from the balcony, to escort him to the front door. They said their goodbyes, and off the young man was to god knows where. Phil closed the door and immediately bagged the mug the other man was using to take into work to run a full DNA test on it.

It wasn’t until two months later that the infamous Hawkeye, whom Phil now knew as Clint Barton, thanks to the Shield DNA test he did after their first meeting, was on Phil’s balcony sleeping once again. This time, Phil didn’t waste the opportunity to offer Clint a job with Shield. Little did Phil know that this would be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.


End file.
